Biotech Acquisition, Blade Therapeutics Announce Definitive Merger Agreement For ~$352.8M; Shares Were Halted Ahead Of News

Author: Benzinga Newsdesk | November 08, 2021 09:03am

• Proposed merger to create publicly traded biopharmaceutical company focused on developing cutting-edge treatments for debilitating fibrotic and neurodegenerative diseases
• Combined company expected to have post-transaction enterprise value of approximately $352.8 million
• Transaction expected to provide pro forma cash balance of approximately $254.3 million to combined company, including gross PIPE proceeds and net cash held in BAC's trust, assuming no redemptions by BAC shareholders, and before deducting anticipated transaction expenses
• Approximately $24.3 million PIPE financing anchored by leading institutional investors, including Deerfield Management, Pfizer Ventures, Bristol Myers Squibb, MPM Capital and Osage University Partners
• Net proceeds expected to support clinical development of differentiated pipeline of oral, small-molecule investigational therapies with disease-modifying potential
• Cudetaxestat, a non-competitive autotaxin inhibitor with differentiating characteristics, expected to enter planned phase 2 clinical study in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in 1H-2022
• BLD-2184, a CNS-penetrant calpain inhibitor for genetic orphan neurodegenerative conditions, expected to enter planned phase 1 clinical study in 1H-2022

Biotech Acquisition Company (NASDAQ:BIOT) ("BAC"), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company affiliated with SPRIM Global Investments, and Blade Therapeutics, Inc. ("Blade"), a biopharmaceutical company based in South San Francisco, Calif., announced today that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement. Upon the closing of the transaction, which is anticipated to occur in the first quarter of 2022, the combined company will be renamed Blade Biotherapeutics, Inc., and is expected to be listed on Nasdaq under the symbol "BBTX." Blade and BAC's joint investor presentation to discuss the proposed merger can be accessed via webcast by clicking here. 

Michael Shleifer, Ph.D., chairman and CEO of BAC, co-founder and managing partner of SPRIM Global Investments, and a board nominee of the combined company, said, "BAC and SPRIM have leveraged deep biopharmaceutical expertise to bring an important biotechnology opportunity to investors. We believe that the proposed merger of Blade and BAC will build near- and long-term value."

Wendye Robbins, M.D., president and CEO of Blade and a board nominee of the combined company, said, "We view Blade's science as world-class, with a clinical-stage pipeline targeting diseases that remain undertreated. We believe that this proposed merger will advance our mission to bring lifechanging treatments to patients with devastating diseases."

Blade expects to advance a differentiatedpipelineof oral, small-molecule therapies with diseasemodifying potential that includes a non-competitive autotaxin inhibitor and inhibitors of dimeric calpains designed for the potential treatment of lung, liver and cardiac fibrosis or neurodegenerative diseases.

Blade's lead investigational medicine is cudetaxestat, a non-competitive, reversible inhibitor of autotaxin that is planned to enter a phase 2 clinical study in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in the first half of 2022. Cudetaxestat has demonstrated direct anti-fibrotic activity and differentiating preclinical and biochemical characteristics which support the potential for a treatment profile in lung and liver fibrosis. Available data from completed phase 1 studies have shown that cudetaxestat was well tolerated with a demonstrated pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic correlation and biomarker activity, and a supportive clinical safety profile.

In neurodegeneration, Blade's lead product candidate is BLD-2184, a CNS-penetrant calpain inhibitor as a potential treatment option for inherited (genetic) poly-Q neurodegenerative conditions such as Huntington's disease and spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3 or Machado-Joseph disease) and other neurodegenerative disorders (e.g., Parkinson's disease, Lewy body dementia, multiple system atrophy). Pending completion of the investigational new drug (IND) application process and subsequent regulatory activation of the IND, Blade plans to start a phase 1 clinical study in healthy volunteers in the first half of 2022.

Posted In: BIOT